Establishing your own Credit after Divorce

•    The amount of credit you’ve recently obtained. This includes the number of inquiries that have been made by creditors about your credit history.         
•    The amount of credit you’re currently utilizing, compared to your overall available credit or credit limits.         
•    Any judgments, liens, bankruptcies, charge-offs, repossessions or other negative information reported by your past or current creditors will be held against you when your credit score is calculated.  Information about your salary, bank account balances, your investments, or the value of your other assets has no impact on your credit score whatsoever.         

Your credit score changes as updated data gets reported by your creditors and lenders to the three credit bureaus every month. The easiest way to determine your official FICO score is to visit the MyFico.com website (www.myfico.com). There is a fee of $15.95 to obtain your FICO score and one credit report from you choice of bureaus.                   

Each of the credit bureaus also calculates is own credit score for you that’s based on information appearing within your credit report compiled by that credit bureau. You’ll need to pay a small fee (under $8) to obtain your credit score from each bureau, although this information is less important than your FICO score.                       

You may find that the individual credit bureau’s credit scores are up to 50 points or more apart from your official FICO credit score. Mortgage lenders, for example, will look at your median score (when comparing all of your credit scores). Credit card issuers and car loan lenders, for example, might only look at your score from one credit bureau.                       

The best thing you can do to boost your credit score is pay off outstanding debts (if possible), and pay all of your bills on time (even if you make just the minimum payment due on a credit card, for example) for at least six months in a row.                        

Your credit score not only determines your ability to obtain credit, but it also impacts your ability to obtain some types of insurance, and can be used by a potential employer to make hiring decisions. Thus, it’s important to do everything possible to protect your credit score and keep it as high as possible.

Jason R. Rich is the series editor and author of "Entrepreneur Magazine’s Personal Finance Pocket Guides." To learn more, please go to www.JasonRich.com.